Introduction to SWC-JA

The Carpentries Community
in Japan



Joel Nitta

SWC-JA logo

Map of workshops around globe

Graph of percentage of women researchers in various countries, with Japan the lowest

State of Carpentries in Japan, circa 2018

  • Only one workshop held (in English)

  • Zero lessons in Japanese

  • Zero member organizations

Beginnings of SWC-JA

Screenshot of first slide of Tom Kelley's presentation on SWC at Tokyo-R in 2018

Beginnings of SWC-JA

  • Translating lessons was a major goal from the start

Tweet encouraging people to join swc-ja from Tom Kelley

Activities

  • Translation

  • Growing the Carpentries in Japan

    • Outreach
    • Workshops

Translation

Screenshot of i18n repo

Translation

  • Check translations using GitHub PR review tools

Screenshot of PR review of translation on GitHub

Translation

  • Completed R-novice-gapminder, working on git-novice, shell-novice

Screenshot of progress on GitHub projects in Carpentries-JA repo

Translation: Summary

  • Green stickies 💚
    • GitHub works well for collaboration
    • Can do translation review in browser
  • Red stickies
    • Requirement for git knowlege is a very high barrier to participation
    • Leads to burnout because only a few members can contribute

Translation: Future Plans

Outreach

  • Members promote Carpentries at their institutions

  • Present at lab meetings, meetups

Screenshot of https://swcarpentry-ja.github.io/en/links.html

Outreach

Screenshot of SWC workshop website in Japanese

Communications and collaboration

  • Slack carpentries-ja.slack.com

  • Meetings via Zoom 3-4 times per year

  • No formal roles

Screenshot of https://swcarpentry-ja.github.io/en/

Current status of SWC-JA

  • 30 members on Slack (ca. 6 core)

  • 1 lesson fully translated

  • 1 workshop held in Japanese

  • 0 member organizations

Key points

  • Translation is a prerequisite

  • Online participation key to making workshop possible

  • Building a Carpentries community from zero is hard

    • Tough to “sell” the concept (lack of cultural familiarity)
    • Community members not in a position to establish Carpentries in local institutions
    • Need better outreach at higher levels